A man described in court as a “monster” has been jailed for 20 years for raping a 13-year-old schoolgirl and a woman in her 20s in Rotherham. Father-of-three Riyasth Hussain, 45, abused the younger victim between 2004 and 2008, when she was a child who had already been sexually exploited by other men.
The girl, now in her 30s, told him from the witness box at Sheffield Crown Court: “You didn’t just steal my childhood, you stole the rest of my life.” She first encountered Hussain when another man was verbally abusing her in the street and he appeared to intervene, presenting himself as a helper before later becoming one of her abusers.
On a later occasion, Hussain pulled up alongside her in his car and persuaded her to get in. He drove her to an industrial estate, dragged her from the vehicle and raped her, then raped her again in his car after taking her to a field. She told the court he would rape her “at any opportunity” and then “chuck me away like I was nothing”.
Hussain was also sentenced for raping another woman in 2008, when she was in her 20s and staying at a friend’s home. A man she did not know entered her room at night and raped her; she later recalled his appearance and details of his car, which allowed officers to identify Hussain as the attacker.
He received eight years for that rape, to run concurrently with consecutive sentences of eight and 12 years for the offences against the younger victim, making a total custodial term of 20 years. Addressing him in court, the younger woman said: “When you met me I was just a fragile, vulnerable little girl you could easily abuse. Today I’m a woman and my only goal is justice. Today I got justice.”
The second woman said she could “never forgive this monster” and that he had “completely ruined” her life. In her victim impact statement she described how her thoughts “freeze” when she hears his name, saying she is constantly dragged back to the “living nightmare” of what he did, unable to concentrate and still feeling scared.
Judge Sarah Wright praised the “incalculable courage” of both women, telling Hussain the younger victim had been “passed on from one man to another” to the point she believed such abuse was normal and that he had exploited this. “Their lives are ruined forever,” she said. “The harm you have caused cannot and never will be repaired.”
Hussain is the 50th person to be convicted under Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency’s largest investigation into child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Officers contacted the younger woman after identifying that she might have been a victim; she said she had been raped by a man known as “Riaz”, later confirmed to be Hussain.
He was arrested in 2019 and found guilty of raping both victims earlier this week. Senior investigating officer Alan Hastings said the survivors had described their suffering with “humbling eloquence and dignity” and remained determined to support the case despite the trauma.
He urged other victims of child sexual abuse to seek help when they feel ready, saying specialist officers and support services are available. Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Liz Fell said Hussain had “preyed on two extremely vulnerable victims” and exploited them “for his own sexual gratification”, noting that one was just 13 to 14 and in care when he targeted her.